1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, pagers, and the like, and more specifically, to a wearable device/appliance (e.g., a wrist watch) capable of wirelessly accessing information and having an interactive user interface equipped with a bezel-based scroll mechanism for enabling navigation, selection and entry of text and graphics elements displayed via the user interface.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Computing, mobile and wireless communications technologies have been rapidly advancingxe2x80x94culminating in a variety of powerful user friendly devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, pagers, etc. Today, it is possible to purchase handheld PDA""s, e.g., palmtops such as the Palm Pilot(copyright), that employ wireless communication devices and that combines computing, telephone/fax, and networking features. A typical PDA may function as a cellular phone, fax sender, and personal organizer and are pen-based, requiring a stylus for text entry. As such, these device incorporate handwriting recognition features and may even employ voice recognition technologies that react to voice input. Small devices such as the RIM 950 and the Motorola PageWriter 2000 pager use a small keyboard for input.
Today, the industry is striving to provide advancements by providing increased PC desktop-like functionality while both decreasing size and power requirements. More recently there have been attempts to incorporate some of the capabilities of the above devices into wrist watches. However, today, only special wearable watch devices are available that, besides time keeping functions, may possess a compass, or a Global Positioning System (GPS), or barometer, heart rate monitor, Personal Handy System (PHS) phone, pager, etc. There are shortcomings in these existing special function watches in that most of them are bulky, are mostly unconnected the Internet or other PC/network devices, have limited battery life, and, are difficult to use. These currently available special function wrist watches additionally have user interfaces that are quite limited in what they can display. For example, in the context of setting time in digital watches, currently, the user is only enabled to set the hour and minute independently, with time only advancing in one direction. Furthermore, most of them have a 6 to 8 seven segment LED or LCDs which can be used to display 6 or 8 digits/letters, and have a small number of indicators that can display AM/PM, Alarm on/off, etc. only at fixed locations within the display. A few watches are currently appearing on the market that have slightly richer display characteristics. Regardless, these various shortcomings have to be solved, otherwise there is no compelling reason for these watches to become popular. The design of a wrist watch for mobile computing applications offers a significant challenge because the watch is a small device. That is, both fitting components and power supplies such as batteries into such a small volume and given the limited screen size of watches pose limitations that have be overcome. Solving these issues is worthy because the watch is an attractive form as 1) it is one of the few devices that a very large fraction of the population is already accustomed to worldwide, 2) is accessible almost all the time, and, 3) is hard to lose.
It would thus be highly desirable to provide a wearable device/appliance (a wrist watch) capable of wirelessly accessing information and equipped with an interactive user interface and high resolution display for providing a variety of desktop PC-like functions.
Current literature relating to human computer interaction has indicated that rotary dial and dial type mechanism are more popular on stereos, car radios, and electrical instruments than linear sliders, buttons, etc. Some mechanical type watches today are provided with a bezel mechanism which is a ring that fits on the periphery of the watch and supports continuous rotation to control various mechanical artifacts of the watchface display, e.g., provide various alarm-setting or time-keeping functions. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 409,924 discloses a watch bezel that have markings/text written on the bezel that may then be pointed to the hour or minute hand of the watch. The bezel is a convenient mechanism since it is continuously rotatable and allows fine positioning.
For instance, in a current bezel-based, alarm-setting feature exemplified by the Timex xe2x80x9cTurn and Goxe2x80x9d watch, the bezel is provided with two markers used to respectively set alarm time hour and minute positions. In such an application, the bezel is rotated with the markers rotatable for mechanically selecting an hour, e.g., via the first marker setting and, for setting the minute via the second marker setting. In such watches these bezel settings mechanically cooperate and interact with a button or switch which may be pulled and pushed to confirm setting of the alarm indicated by the bezel positions. In another example, bezels may be used to measure elapsed time or provide time remaining features. A further use of a bezel on a watch face is to provide it with markings corresponding to locations of cities around the world, so that, one may position the marking at a particular time setting and, implement a particular algorithm for enabling the determination of the current time in that city (or time zone) based on the current local time. Further applications of a bezel mechanisms include the provision of compass markings for indicating navigational directions, e.g., making a longitude/latitude adjustment.
However, it is the case that all these aforementioned bezel wrist watches are mechanical bezels and do not generate electrical signals that can be interpreted by a microprocessor.
It would thus be additionally highly desirable to provide a wearable electronic device/appliance (a wrist watch) equipped with an interactive user interface and high resolution display for providing a variety of desktop PC-like functions and further implementing a bezel control mechanism for enabling navigation, selection and entry of text and graphics displayed via the user interface.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wearable device/appliance (a wrist watch) capable of wirelessly accessing information and equipped with an interactive user interface and high resolution display for providing a variety of desktop PC-like functions.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a wearable device/appliance (a wrist watch) having an interactive user interface equipped with a bezel control device for enabling navigation through and selection of text and graphics elements displayed via the user interface.
In a preferred embodiment, as will be described in greater detail herein, the roller device comprises a bezel which may be rotated and depressed for generating both rotation and wheel click events for enabling the navigation, selection and entry of text and graphic display items.
According to the invention, there is provided a system and method for controlling user interface functions in a wearable appliance including a high-resolution display for displaying text and graphic items and a bezel-based input device having a bezel ring capable of being rotated and activated for executing user interface functions, said method comprising the steps of: generating display of the user interface functions via the display and initiating display of a cursor navigation element thereof; generating signals in response to rotation of the bezel ring for navigating the cursor through displayed graphic and text items; generating a signal in response to activation of the bezel-based input mechanism for selecting a displayed graphic and text item highlighted by the cursor; and, receiving the signals and effecting navigation, selection and entry of displayed items through the user interface.